Shakespeare for kids!

 

When I began blogging about the books I read to Abhay, I had meant it to be a daily affair and that is the precise reason for the name “Onestoryaday”! More or less I managed to live up to the name during my “stay-at-home-mom” phase in the US, the first year of Onestoryaday,  and all thanks to the fantastic US public library system that allows for free access to some of the best children’s literature! As we moved back to India, one story a day became one story every other day as even with the combined membership of over three of Bangalore’s libraries…….I still couldn’t borrow over 30 books which I could in the Hillsboro public library! (And that’s true!)  Now that I’ve traded my “easy-going-stay-at-home” status to “always-on-the-run working mom” phase…one story every other day….has been demoted to twice a week! While it is still one story/one book  a day at bedtime everyday or even two books if it’s a holiday for Abhay, (if not, my seven year old refuses to sleep!)…. blogging about it everyday ….is a different matter altogether! Now that I have joined the “30 books in 30 days” challenge, an event launched by friend and fellow blogger Bubble Ink, I hope to key in a few sentences on the book of the day…everyday until the next 30 days! Thanks to Bubble Ink …..Onestoryaday is now actually One story a day!

 

So kick-starting the challenge the first day of March, I thought I should begin with the master storyteller of all times – William Shakespeare! I know….all works of Shakespeare may not exactly be age appropriate…but I hoped to engage Abhay with “The Tempest”, brought out in a comic book format by Wonderland Books as a part of Illustrated Classic Works series, as with Alice in Wonderland that we had read earlier. Though I hope this will not be the only version of Shakespeare’s works that Abhay may ever read, I guess this will do for now! J I was quite surprised that Abhay quite liked the story and was fascinated by the magical world of Prospero, intrigued by the treachery of his brother Antonio and the twist in his fate as Prospero seeks revenge. Though not a typical children’s book, this is a great way of introducing famous works of literature to our kids…..so as to inspire them read more and more!